Waiting For A Harvest Purity 811

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a beautiful cloud formation and blue skies over a thriving cornfield comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene and many others while walking down Waite Road in Easton on Saturday. While I thought of many things I want to say this morning, I first have to say that the irony of my wife living on Wait Road hasn't been lost on me. And sometimes I remind— I'm reminded just how funny God can be in terms of where he puts us in our lives. For those who didn't know, Tammy Lynn and I were both previously married, and we were both pretty sure that we would never get married again. But the Lord brought us together, and I truly believe that. In contemplating our friendship and my growing affection for Tammy Lynn, I got a sudden realization that There is no other. And despite my initial fears and doubts that figured that it would take about 10 to 15 years for things to settle with our children and living situations in our individual lives, I answered my heart's call to make Tammy Lynn my wife now, with the understanding that there would be things to adjust to and some time before we could, you know, there would be some time before we could be together in one household. So as much as we are one as man and wife, we have two households, and it will take some time before we are united in one. So we wait on Wait Road. Haha. But we also live in love. We are doing this thing. Waiting is a big part of our faith life as Christians and life in general. In life, we will have various trials and times of uncertainty, and waiting will come to everyone. Whether you have God in your life or not. But believe me, as someone who spent most of their life doing things my way and waiting on things with fear, anger, depression, or anxiety, it is much better to be waiting with someone who not only cares, but who is always present and who is powerful and can work all things together for your good. That's right, that's God. Although I share a photo of a cornfield today to represent the fact that we have to wait until the time is right to reap a harvest from our faith— for our, uh, for our faithfulness, uh, I tend to think of our faith as a walk. The demands of our lives generally required, uh, us to work, um, and to be stewards of the things God has provided us, you know, entrusted us with. Although we can think of waiting as sitting around, I can actually— I can actually sit and wait when necessary, but because of the demands of life and because of my personality perhaps, and maybe a lack of patience, I tend to choose to do things with my waiting time. When I was on a vacation mission trip in Africa a few years back, the team discovered that the pace of life in Zambia and Zimbabwe was not the same in the as in the United States. Resources were not as abundant and the people didn't seem to have the sense of urgency that our team had to get 'er done. As he corrects his thing. So many times we found ourselves waiting and I will never forget what one of our leaders would invariably say in those in-between moments of waiting. He would say, "Surely there is something we can do." While my interior questioner of authority and union worker still tenses up at the thought of busywork for the sake of busywork, I myself, when I'm faced with times of waiting, will seek to do something with the time rather than just sitting there. Recently, I found myself waiting for my wife and stepkids as they were shopping at a Target that had a mini Starbucks. I'm not really a Starbucks guy, but I figured that maybe I would sit in the seating area there. But I discovered that people had left a mess on the vacated tables, as if they— there were waiters or busboys that would pick up after them. The two Starbucks employees who were working were swamped and were stuck behind the counter, so there was no way that they were going to be able to clear the tables anytime soon. So as I stood there waiting, the urge to do what's right, or to surely do something, overcame me, and suddenly I found myself throwing out used coffee cups, food wrappers, and napkins, and wiping up spills to clean up someone else's mess. The tables were eventually cleaned, and I had a seat for a short time before my family was ready to leave. While we could look at our phones, read, or listen to music in our waiting times, as I have continued to walk in the Spirit, I have discovered this increasing motivation to do good works from time to time. Even though I may feel that these things aren't required or may make me feel awkward, I never regret doing them. Because the world is a mess and because our individual situations aren't perfect, the simple truth is there is surely something we can do. So if you get intuition to do something good or to put things in order when you find yourself waiting, do it. These little things very well could be, and probably are, the good works that God has prepared for us to walk into. Ephesians 2:10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Sorry guys, the Word says it. So, so more than just believing, we should also be seeking those things that the Lord has prepared for us to do. That goodness, fruit of the Spirit, can be expressed in action. So in times of waiting, think about killing the time by doing what's right, by doing what's productive, or doing things selflessly. Selflessly for others. While all human beings will have to wait in life, we might want to consider to answer the call to be Christians doing something to build our faith, to draw closer to God, or to be his hands and feet, to do good works, to make the world a slightly better place. I often think of the Christian faith as being called to walk into the desert sometimes. To trust the Lord with our very lives and to go in a direction that seems unorthodox and unfruitful. But if you have walked with the Lord and have seen the amazing things He has done that I have, you know that even if He calls you to an experience— to experience a path of suffering and heartache, it will always be for a purpose. And in the end, the desert that you have walked through will be remembered as the pathway that led to an abundant harvest of peace, provision, and joy. So whether you're waiting on something or are perfectly content with where you are right now, keep walking and talking with God. He has places for you to go, people to meet, and things to do. The question is, will you accept his invitations to seek out what he has for you when he suggests that surely there is something for you to do. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation, Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 40:1, and it says, I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. Today's verse reminds us that we wait— when we wait patiently for the Lord to help us, he will hear our cry. The implication here is that not only does the LORD hear our cry, but He listens to our call for help and actually helps us. As someone who has cried out to the LORD on several occasions and who has walked in the Spirit for a few years, I have to tell you a few things that will perhaps help the maturity of your faith. We don't know God's will. God is not a genie in a bottle. We don't get everything we want. We can't— we can and will suffer in this life, even as Christians. Although my purpose in writing the blog and doing the podcast is to encourage people to follow Jesus Christ, these things may not be very encouraging. But as someone who avoided the church for most of my life, I can tell you one of the reasons why is because of the disappointments over answered unanswered prayers. Also, in light of the unanswered prayers, I found the encouragements of Christians to just believe or to quote-unquote claim your miracle as further reason to doubt the legitimacy of the church. That seemed to be just a hoping and a praying in blind faith that looked a lot like religious extremism or utter lunacy that denied the cold, hard, harsh realities of the world. The more insistent a Christian's plea to just pray and believe, the more I felt that religion was akin to madness. Of course, obviously, I hadn't encountered God's grace in my life yet, and thought that I could figure out the world with my intelligence and reason alone. Prayer was unscientific. Things don't just happen. My haughty unanswered prayers are open challenges to God. To show himself proved his non-existence. Plus, if I believed in God, I would have to be good, and I knew in my heart of hearts that I wasn't any good. I thought bad things, and I liked breaking the rules and getting away with things. But as smart as I was, emotionally I was a mess—angry, depressed, anxious—and I had an insatiable appetite for the things of the flesh. I felt absolutely hopeless when I contemplated my death. I felt guilty. I knew I did wrong and if there was a God, there would be hell to pay. But when faced with the challenge of successfully completing pole climbing school for my job, I prayed. I called out to God and even though pride failed to recognize it at first, He answered my prayer and set me on a course that would lead me to put it— lead me to put putting my faith in Jesus. God works in mysterious ways, to say the least. But my point is not that God will answer all your prayers. My point is that he does hear our cries, even though we may not be able to receive our quote-unquote miracle. Uh, the miracle is that we know him at all. So even though we don't know his will and thus can't push God's hand to do whatever we want, and can't pray perfectly for his will to be done in our lives, we will— we have to realize that he knows better and that in our salvation he has already given us everything we will ever need. So cry out to the Lord and ask. He will hear you and listen. Well, I can't tell you, uh, tell you he will give you every— whatever you want. I do know because His word says it. He already has and will work all things together for your good. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, uh, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and, uh, today we start, uh, chapter 13. Which asks the questions about the, the powers of darkness— reality or myth? And he examines the modern worldview. So if you want to check that out, go to mtforchrist.org and look at today's blog post. It'll be at the— that resource will be at the bottom of the blog post, along with helpful links to our podcast and to and into our YouTube channel and to my wife's podcast and Facebook group. So if you want to check out, you know, those links and get connected to more, um, go to mtforchrist.org and look at the, uh, the bottom and you'll see all those links. Um, well, it's Tuesday and another day of work, and, uh, God is good. He lets us work and provide for ourselves. That's sort of the thing I was trying to point to in terms of the prayer thing. God— we have a relationship with God and he provides for us, but he doesn't give us everything we want. And some things he won't give to us because we can work towards them. In my life, I've discovered that You know, this, this relationship with God is a cooperative effort. We are his workmanship, but we have work to do. That's something that was, you know, from the beginning. Man had a job to do, to take dominion of the earth and to, you know, work for the things that, you know, provide for his life. So that's what we're going to do, and we can do it with the joy and peace of knowing that we have peace with God and that he will help us as we walk through this life, and that, you know, ultimately he is going to welcome us into his kingdom where we can live with him forever. So this is all good news, and so we can keep walking even through a desert of suffering or heartache, knowing that the Lord is good and that You know, on the other side of your pain, there is, there is victory, there is freedom, and there is joy. So I encourage people to keep walking with God and to keep speaking the name of Jesus, to let other people know the hope that they have in him. So, uh, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the knowledge of Jesus Christ, for your word and for opening our eyes and showing us the way to, to, to eternal life by putting our faith in Jesus. We've been forgiven and made new. We've received the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us into the things that you've prepared for us to do and to show us the way, show us that surely we can do something to change ourselves, to change the world around us, and all for your glory, Lord. And for your purposes. You give us meaning and purpose in life, Lord, and, um, and, and you help us along the way. Um, Lord, we pray today for the people listening. Uh, Lord, we come alongside them in their prayer requests. We pray for your Holy Spirit to go before them and to affect change, to give them strength, um, to do the things that show that your divine favor, your grace is with them. Lord, we pray, of course, as always, that you go before us to today, to open our eyes to the things that we need to see, the things we need to know, uh, to protect us along the way and to guide us in the things we should do. Lord, we thank you for your living presence in our lives every day and, uh, for all the good that you've done and all the good that you will do as we walk from here to eternity. Lord, we thank you, we love you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.